Three Major Callings In My Life

Bob Jordan

Let me start off by saying God has spoken to me many, many times – that still small voice of direction from the Holy Spirit. But these three times are key in my life as they dealt directly with three major areas: Family, Career, and Ministry. In no particular order of importance, the three major callings in my life are…

1)   To be an engineer – God spoke this to me while I was working as a Chemical Technician in an aerospace company. I hadn’t settled on an educational path (I started out in Computer Science at Western Washington but bombed out after four quarters – I didn’t like it and was directionless). While at work in the Chemistry Lab I saw what degreed engineers did, and I knew I could do it, and it had appeal. Further, I saw very little Christian influence and wanted to reverse that, and show that a Christian could be strong in science and engineering and be a witness even in that. I had a propensity for math and thinking and problems solving, so I enrolled in school. Presently I have four degrees, a professional engineer’s license, taught engineering in college for ten years, am VP of engineering, have led multiple engineering teams, and co-developed a product development process. This demonstrates that I did hear God’s voice as the resultant hard work has been blessed over the years, my desire to work in this arena has not diminished, and I have held consistently higher levels of responsibility in this arena and have accepted those responsibilities.

2)   To be in Prison Ministry – God spoke this to me while I was inside the Monroe Reformatory as a volunteer playing softball with the inmates. Time stood still as the Spirit of God overcame me and I knew I’d be involved in ministry to prisoners. Shortly thereafter I was invited to a church that had an active jail ministry. With this team I learned to teach, preach, share my testimony, pray for others, and ultimately lead my own church jail ministry team. Over the years I developed my skills, recruited others, and developed their skills. In time I came to join what is now an International Prison Ministry where I led the largest domestic prison team, serve on the Board of Directors, am Dean of the ministry’s training program, send out monthly sermons to a broad list of friends, and have been on four international missions trips, three as leader or co-leader. I am a leader in a chaplains association that covers Washington State and for six years have been on the executive team as secretary. This demonstrates that I did hear God’s voice, and that submission to those who taught me led me to be a leader who can teach others, my responsibilities have continued to increase over the years, I have never tired of going into jails and prisons, and I’m widely respected in the prison ministry community as a mature, seasoned veteran who is sought out for council and direction.

3)   To have a large family – God spoke this to me and my wife after the birth of our first child. We were given a book by a local church by Dr. John R. Rice entitled The Home. In this book Dr. Rice made the case for a large family – a scriptural case. As I read the scriptures it occurred to me that Dr. Rice was correct. My wife read it and felt the same way too. As a Christian to me it is hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian if in the face of clear Christian teaching, and with the unction of the Holy Spirit, one determines to do something counter to the teaching. So my wife and I decided to let God have his way and we’d accept whatever his will for us was. We now have eight children. All are well-mannered and behaved, and we routinely receive kind words from family, friends, and complete strangers that are complimentary toward our children. This we appreciate and do not take for granted. As a part of this decision we also learned of and embraced the concept of Homeschooling (another calling). This has worked out very well. Our oldest scored almost 1300 points on the SAT. Four are now in college and earning straight A’s and are commonly asked by other students to help them. Even the teachers turn the class over to our kids from time to time as they see them as being modest, mannerly, mature and responsible - and intelligent. This demonstrates that we did hear God’s voice – the children he saw fit to bless us with have not caused us grief or sorrow in any sense of the word, all are motivated, all have been provided for materially, all have had travel and direct learning opportunities (we’ve been to all 48 lower states and three have traveled internationally). Again, we’ve progressively prospered, increased our responsibilities, and have seen God’s good hand on our family. All kids love God, are part of church life and obey their parents. They are in Christian submission and are not in rebellion.

The point of sharing this is that all three callings came to me in my early-to-mid 20’s. I am now in my early 50s. The Holy Spirit continues to lead and guide me as I submit to His will and listen for His voice. I could list innumerable occasions when I sensed the clear leading of the Lord, but these three show that, at least to me, that it is God’s pleasure to lead and direct his people, and that whether it’s ministry, family, or career The Almighty has a perfect purpose for us in what we do with our lives. My callings will obviously be different than those of someone else, but all can be called to their arenas of maximum fulfillment, purpose, congruency, satisfaction, productivity, and learning.

The “method” for me was that in all three cases I was keeping my ears open to the voice of the Holy Spirit by living according to what I knew to be His general will and putting myself in a position to be influenced by the Holy Spirit, I could discern his direct will for my life. This, among a multitude of other reasons, is an advantage of being a Christian who is intentionally Walking in the Sprit. It is available to anyone; why would anyone not want this in their life? And the confirmation of these callings is a combination of personal contentment, increasingly positive results, and the recognition of these callings by other mature believers within the Christian community.

It is easy to say "God spoke to me," but the proof of that is the results that follow. Prophets in the Old Testament had to get the prophecy right 100% of the time or it was recognized that God in fact did NOT speak. I'm not quick to say "God spoke" but have as a habit sought out men of God on a subject and then pursued what I believed was the Lord's leading and then analyze the results to see if these things be so.